Bloomberg Confused Over Responsibly Of 9/11 Sphere Relocation Project

“It’s up to the Port Authority," he said. "I’ll support whatever they decide to do." - Mayor Bloomberg

The sphere was surrounded by construction fencing Friday. The Mayor had another Bloomberg Moment today as he apparently forgot who was responsible for the controversial plan to move the iconic Sphere. The Sphere, along with Eternal Flame are being moved as part of a controversial $18 million Battery Park & Perimeter Bikeway - Parks Department/DOT/EDC/ Battery Park Conservancy-redesign project.

The Mayor said the Sphere should remain in Battery Park but supported "whatever" the Port Authority decided to do. The Port Authority however is not involved with the redesign project other than it has to find another location for it's sphere now that it is being being kicked out of the park.

After news broke in April 2011 of the Battery Park bicycle path project administration officials have refused to comment on it. The plan also calls for relocating twelve monuments to along the perimeter of the park.

The .3 mile portion of the Manhattan Greenway will connect with the Hudson River Park bikeway to the west and the bikeway built as part of Peter Minuit Plaza to the east. The $18 million project was funded through State and Federal grants and over $10 million in MTA mitigation funding, and $300,000 in design fees contributed by the LMDC.

The Sphere, the Fritz Koenig bronze sculpture had stood between the two Twin Tower buildings as a symbol of world peace. The sphere and the Eternal Flame were installed in Battery Park shortly after the horrific World Trade Center tragedy and became symbols of hope and resilience for visitors and 9/11 families.

Despite being in the works for years a new location for the sphere has yet to be found. (Photos: Julie Shapiro/DNAinfo) - Geoffrey Croft

Manhattan

Despite Port Authority opposition, Mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks the iconic 9/11 sphere should remain in Battery Park, he said Monday, according to DNAinfo.

Bloomberg lent his voice to the wave of critics who have decried the Port Authority's plan to move the Fritz Koenig Sphere — the dented, bronze sculpture that was pulled from the wreckage of the World Trade Center and became a symbol of hope and resilience following the 9/11 attacks — out of Battery Park.

"I think it’s beautiful where it is,” Bloomberg told reporters at an unrelated press conference in West Chelsea, explaining that leaving the sphere in its current location helps visitors understand the scope of the impact of the attacks.

"You have people going elsewhere to understand this is something that affected the whole city, not just on the World Trade Center Site," he said.

Still, Bloomberg said that, once a new location is chosen, he won't interfere.

World Trade Center Sphere Leaving Battery Park By End of April. Rosemary Cain, whose firefighter son George Cain was killed on 9/11, is shown after a 2011 meeting where she advocated for the sphere to return to the rebuilt World Trade Center.

“It’s up to the Port Authority," he said. "I’ll support whatever they decide to do."

The agency had originally said it would haul the 25-foot sphere to a storage hangar at JFK Airport's Hangar where it stores other large 9/11 artifacts by the end of April — but reversed course following a public outcry from many 9/11 families, who feel the sculpture should be returned to its original home, between the Twin Towers, inside what is now the 9/11 Memorial.

The Port Authority released a statement on May 11 saying that it would announce a new, temporary home for the sculpture last week — but has yet to make an announcement about its fate.

“We believe this sculpture should continue to reside in a location where New Yorkers and people from around the region, nation and the world can view this important reminder of survival and resilience,” Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye said in a statement at the time.

The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but spokesman Steve Coleman has said that the park was never meant to be a permanent home for the sphere, which was moved to Battery Park in 2002 after being pulled from the rubble at Ground Zero.

On Friday, the sculpture was surrounded by construction fencing, suggesting the move will be happening soon.

One possibility the Port Authority privately floated last year was to put the sphere in the future Liberty Park, just south of the 9/11 Memorial, but that won't be open for another couple of years.

Koenig's bronze sphere was originally installed in Battery Park during an emotional ceremony on the six-month anniversary of the attacks, and became a symbol of hope and resilience for many visitors and 9/11 families.

The sphere in Battery Park in the spring of 2010. It has to move for the $ 18 million dollar Battery Park & Perimeter Bikeway construction. (Photos: Julie Shapiro/DNAinfo)

Read More:

Mayor Bloomberg Says 9/11 Sphere Should Remain in Battery Park

DNAinfo - May 21, 2012 - By Jill Colvin

Battery Park Bicycle Path Plan Orphans "The Sphere" - 9/11 Symbol

A Walk In The Park - May 14, 2012

Battery Park Bicycle Path Plan Orphans "The Sphere" - 9/11 Symbol

"It simply cannot be mothballed in some musty hangar at JFK," Schumer said. "It must remain, like now, accessible as a public touchstone for New Yorkers and the visitors from the four corners of the globe." - Senator Charles Schumer.

The Sphere, the Fritz Koenig designed sculpture had stood between the two Twin Tower buildings as a symbol of world peace. It was moved to Battery Park after the destruction of the World Trade Center. A controversial $18 million Battery Park & Perimeter Bikeway project moves will move the sculpture to an unknown location. The eternal flame was dedicated on September 11, 2002.

Manhattan

By Geoffrey Croft

The Sphere "endures as an icon of hope and the indestructible spirit of this country," and was placed in Battery Park as a temporary memorial to all who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, according to the city's dedication plaque.

However plans for a Battery Park bicycle path call for restoring and relocating twelve monuments to along the perimeter of the park. Despite being in the works for years a new location has yet to be found.

The Port Authority and Parks Department initially planned to store the now ionic sphere at a storage hanger at Kennedy Airport - which many found to be is unacceptable including Senator Charles Schumer who recently weighed in on the subject. Some Sept. 11 victims' family members have been pushing officials to return it to its original spot and incorporate it into the National September Memorial at the World Trade Center or the yet to be built Liberty Park, south of the World Trade Center site.

Over 7,200 hundred people have signed an on-line petition demanding its relocation to the 9/11 Memorial site.

PEDAL TO MEDDLE: Plans for a Battery Park bicycle path call for relocating several monuments, including "The Sphere." The sphere from the original World Trade Center was moved south to Battery Park. The 22.5 ton sculpture was rededicated with an eternal flame as a memorial to the victims of 9/11. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images) (Photo: Chad Rachman/NY Post)

"The designers of the memorial have ruled that it CANNOT be returned. In order, they said, to protect the integrity of the design," the petition states.

"The memorial design will include over 500 trees. Mayor Bloomberg and his deputy mayor, Patricia Harris, will not permit any of those trees to be cleared to create a proper space that allows the return of the Sphere and respects its history and significance."

After a barrage on new negative publicity last week on Friday the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said they were close to finding a temporary new home that will keep it in the public eye but they wouldn't say where. The agency is continuing to look for a permanent place for the sphere.

The approximately. .3 mile portion of the Manhattan Greenway will connect with the Hudson River Park bikeway to the west and the bikeway built as part of Peter Minuit Plaza to the east.

The $18 million Battery Park & Perimeter Bikeway project was funded through State and Federal grants and over $10 million in MTA mitigation funding, and $300,000 in design fees contributed by the LMDC.

The project was supposed to break ground in 2011 and construction expected to last eighteen months.

Dedication Plaque - Battery Park.

The cash-strapped Parks Department will spend millions of dollars to dig up and move more than 10 Battery Park memorials, statues and sculptures -- including "The Sphere," which has stood as a tribute to 9/11 victims – to gussy up a new bicycle path, the New York Post wrote last year.

Even as Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe is threatening to raise fees and lay off groundskeepers, he allocated $4.75 million for the project that would relocate the memorials -- many unmoved for decades -- along an expanded 600-yard Battery Park bikeway and "monument walk."

The change "will result in improved, dignified settings for each of the monuments, as well as creating more open, uninterrupted green space," say planning documents for the Battery Park & Bikeway Perimeter.

The expanded bikeway along Battery Place and State Street is scheduled to be completed in 2012. It will eventually link the Hudson River Park Bikeway to the East River Esplanade.

It is part of an $11.8 million "master plan" by the nonprofit Battery Park Conservancy to overhaul much of the park.

The 25-foot bronze Fritz Koenig designed sculpture stood between the two Twin Tower buildings for thirty years as a symbol of world peace.

Read More:

Sen. Schumer: Move World Trade Center sphere to somewhere prominent!

New York Daily News - May 12, 2012 - By Jonathan Lemire

World Trade Center Sphere Being Moved From Battery Park To Storage

WCBS 880 - April 6, 2012 - Sean Adams

An assault on Battery Bike path to uproot park monuments

New York Post - April 2, 2011 - By John Doyle and Chuck Bennett

Parks' Holds Firm On Off-Leach Policy In Battery Park

At a CB 1 meeting on Monday, Manhattan Borough Commissioner William Castro said the city was willing to install a removable 250-foot-long dog run on one of the park’s paved pathways, from 6 to 9 each morning. According to Mr. Castro, the Parks Department has installed similar dog runs in several other Manhattan parks—including Morningside Park and St. Nicholas Park, both in Harlem—where residents have requested designated off-leash areas, mostly to protect existing gardens and planted areas. This summer the Parks Department began issuing $150 tickets to dog owners, enforcing a leash policy that had long been ignored.

Manhattan

Lower Manhattan dog owners and their pets got a clear message from city Parks Department officials Monday night: paws off the Battery Park lawn.

Until Parks Enforcement Patrol officers cracked down on them this summer, dog owners let their pets run free on the park’s main lawn. Then the ticketing began and a group of pet owners, the Downtown Dog Owners Association, pushed for a designated period of “off-leash” time. But at a Monday Community Board 1 meeting, the Parks Department’s Manhattan Borough Commissioner, William Castro, said the city would continue to enforce its rules, according to Tribeca Trib.

“This is our position, and it’s not changing,” Castro said at the Nov. 22 meeting, adding that the department’s commissioner, Adrian Benepe, also opposed dogs on the lawn.

As a compromise, Castro said, the city was willing to install a removable 250-foot-long dog run on one of the park’s paved pathways, from 6 to 9 each morning

“Ninety-nine percent of other dog groups would jump at a chance like this, and have in the past,” Castro said. The department has installed similar dog runs in several other Manhattan parks—including Morningside Park and St. Nicholas Park, both in Harlem—where residents have requested designated off-leash areas, mostly to protect existing gardens and planted areas.

“We’ve tried to work it out to where we think it works for everyone,” Castro said. “It seems to me it’s a very reasonable compromise that’s worked in other parks in the city.”

“We all want to get to a reasonable place,” said Battery Park City resident Elizabeth Whelan, who addressed Castro on behalf of the group. “We believe that there is room for the dogs on the green space, and we think it will make the park better.”

Others said they weren’t satisfied with a paved dog run and objected to Castro calling them uncooperative. Rector Street resident Caterina DePeralta pointed out that the standard off-leash hours in parks are typically 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. She and others in her group said they were willing to yield on most point if their pets could roam on at least some section of grass.

Read More:

City Won’t Bend on Off-Leash Laws on Battery Park Lawn

The Tribeca Trib - November 23, 2010 - By Matt Dunning

Battery Park Dog Owners Fight Leash Rules

A Walk In The Park - October 14, 2010

Battery Park Dog Owners Fight Leash Rules

Off-leash Dogs Battery Park in lower Manhattan. This summer Parks Department officers began issuing $150 tickets to dog owners, enforcing a leash policy that had long been ignored. A dog owner's group is now fighting to have a trail period where they are not ticketed.

Manhattan

For more than 20 years, dogs have run free on Battery Park’s main lawn early in the morning.

The unused grassy area was a place for dogs and their owners to socialize, the only large open space downtown where dogs could run around.

But that changed this summer, when Parks Department officers began issuing $150 tickets to dog owners, enforcing a leash policy that had long been ignored, according to DNAinfo.

Now, the Downtown Dog Owners Association is fighting for a trial period to prove that their dogs are helping, not hurting, the park.

Warrie Price, president of the Battery Conservancy, said she did not have a position on the trial period, but she is concerned about the negative impact dogs sometimes have on the park when they stray into planted beds or when their owners don’t pick up after them.

Read/View More:

Dog owners in the Financial District are seeking a trial period to allow their dogs to run off-leash   

DNAinfo - October 14, 2010 - By Julie Shapiro

Judge Denies Temporary Injunction Against City In Park Artist Fight: Crack Down Begins Monday

Artist Market In Union Square.  The Bloomberg administration - and  the various park conservancies and BIDs that run the four parks affected by the new vending rules - claim the parks have become too crowded necessitating the change.  The lawsuit argues that greenmarket and holiday commercial vendors create more congestion in the parks than the artists. (see below) Beginning Monday in Union Square Park, 18 artists will be allowed to sell their work each day on a first come first serve basis. An additional 40 vendors will be allowed to sell in the park on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

The rules will also push the artists to the perimeter of the park to within six inches of the street, according to Robert Lederman, a plaintiff in the suit.   "They're creating a dangerous situation where there wasn't one before." 

(photos:  © Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates)  Click on Images to enlarge.

Manhattan

By Geoffrey Croft

On Friday afternoon, Federal District Court Judge Richard J. Sullivan declined to issue a preliminary injunction to block the enforcement of the new Park rules designed to dramatically reduce the number of artists working in four parks in Manhattan. The City will begin enforcing the new rules on Monday July 19th.  

The  Bloomberg administration,  the conservancies and the BID who collectively run the four parks, have said the parks have become too crowded. The lawsuit argued that the greenmarket and holiday commercial vendors create far more congestion in the parks than the artists.

Robert Lederman, president of Artists' Response to Illegal State Tactics (A.R.T.I.S.T,)  one of the plaintiffs,  pointed out that artists have previously been denied injunctions in all of the cases that they eventually won. He said his lawyers will immediately be appealing the decision.

Greenmarket Conjestion. The park conservancies and the BIDS that run the four parks argue that the parks have become too crowded,  but the lawsuit contends that greenmarket and holiday commercial vendors create more congestion in the parks than the artists.

City lawyer Mark Muschenheim said he was pleased with the decision, saying the rules reflect a careful balance between the rights of, vendors and the public's right to enjoy the parks, according to The Associated Press.

The new rules place a cap on the number of "expressive matter vendors" selling in Union Square Park,  the High Line, Battery Park and six areas around Central Park.  Spaces will now be granted on a first-come-first-served basis. Artists maintain these restrictions are impeding their first amendment rights while also greatly impact their livelihood.

In Union Square Park, 18 artists will be allowed to sell their work each day. An additional 40 vendors will be allowed to sell  in the park on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. In Central Park 8 artists will be allowed at at Columbus Circle, 5 on Central Park South, 10 by the Plaza Hotel, 13 along Wien Walk leading to the Central Park Zoo, 16 on the south side of the Metropolitan Museum, 12 on the north side. In Battery Park, 9 will be allowed only on the perimeter of the park. On the High Line, artists will be limited to 5 spots.

Artists will be allowed into Union Square Park on Monday morning beginning at 6am. The artists argue they are being unfairly targeted because the general public face no time restrictions as to when they are allowed to enter the park. 

According to Mr. Lederman, artists will begin protesting "and otherwise resisting the new Park rules.... for the foreseeable future,"  beginning Monday at 9AM in the South Plaza (by 14th Street), in Union Square Park.  

Read More:

Artists Planning A Work of Protest

Wall Street Journal - July 19, 2010 By Lauren Fedor

New rules for NYC park artists to start Monday,  after judge denies injunction

The Examiner - July 18, 2010 - By Leslie Koch

CENTRAL PARK PORTRAIT EXCHANGE

July 17, 2010 - By Peter Walsh 

Judge Allows City to Limit Art Sellers in Parks

New York Times - July 16,  2010 -  By Javier C. Hernandez 

Art Attack - City Set For First Amendment Crackdown In Parks On Monday

A Walk In The Park - July 15, 2010

Artists Sue NYC Over New Park Rules

A Walk In The Park - June 18, 2010

Benepe's Spin Justifying Park's New Vending Rules Backfires

A Walk In The Park - April 10, 2010

Parks Department Backs Down On High Line Arrests - Lawsuit Targets Benepe for Previous Arrests

A Walk In The Park - December 18, 2009  - By Geoffrey Croft

Artist Arrested on Highline, DPR's Mea Culpa

A Walk In The Park - November 21, 2009